The present invention relates to mounting devices for attaching mud flaps to vehicles, and particularly to a mounting device which is resistant to damage in case the truck or trailer on which the mud flaps are mounted is accidently backed into an obstruction.
Trucks are usually required by law to be equipped with mud flaps behind their rear wheels if they are to be operated on a highway. In vehicles such as log trucks and the like in which the truck bed or trailer bed is primarily only a skeletal frame without a solid load-carrying platform extending above the rear wheels, these mud flaps must be mounted on a horizontally extending support attached to a portion of the vehicle frame.
Particularly in the log hauling industry, where log trucks and trailers operate over hazardous and sometimes upredictable terrain and around obstructions such as log piles, loaders, and log decks, there is a high risk of such horizontally extending mud flap mountings being damaged. For example, when a truck or trailer is backing in a log handling yard, the mud flap mounting is typically the first part of the truck which encounters any obstruction which is not high enough to be clearly seen from the truck cab.
The logging industry currently primarily uses a solidly mounted mud flap support arm which extends laterally from a solid portion of the truck or trailer frame. A flexible mud flap-carrying wand is attached to this solid support arm. This permits the mud flap to move somewhat relative to the solid support arm, so that it can be deflected when it comes into contact with such roadside obstacles as fenceposts, bushes, and the like, without being damaged. The solid support arm is usually exposed to striking an obstacle only as the vehicle is backed, but in that case, upon contact with a solid obstacle, it usually breaks or bends. Breaking and bending of the solid support arms on vehicles such as log trailers require considerable maintenance, incurring repair costs and causing lost time to the operator of the vehicle.
In addition to mud flaps, such lighting fixtures as tail lights, brake lights, and turning signal lights are also mounted at the rear of trucks and trailers, where they are similarly vulnerable to damage when the truck or trailer is backed into an obstruction which may not be visible to the operator of the truck. They are commonly mounted in recesses defined in the solid mud flap hanger support arms, but are usually damaged when the hanger bracket is bent or broken off.
What is needed, therefore, is a device for use on vehicles such as log trucks and trailers to hold mud flaps securely in a desired location relative to the wheel of the vehicle during normal operation, which is not susceptible to damage in case the vehicle is backed into an obstruction. Ideally, such a device should be easily adjustable or replaceable and should also provide added protection for various light fixtures at the rear of a vehicle.